Having images in your blog post is one of the best things that you can do to grab the attention of your readers and cause them to take that initial look. When people see a nice image they immediately want to know what it represents and what the story behind it is.
They improve the overall look of the post and bring that professional look to the finished product.
In this day and age when publishing has become an obsession with many bloggers, you still come across a post where the blogger has not used any images. Well that’s a totally different feel for the reader and it makes the post seem incomplete.
You need those images to make things more appealing. They also break up what would be a wall of text and make the document scannable, which is how many read today.
As a blogger, you need lots of images. The problem becomes where to get them without spending loads of money, particularly if you are somewhat new to blogging and have yet to make any money.
One place you can find images to use is Flickr Creative Commons. This is a site where you have permission to use the images. You simply need to observe the conditions of the license.
Under creative commons licensing you are free to copy, share, distribute and transmit the work if you use the images governed by the attribution license. Just attribute the work to the author or person who established the license in the manner they intended.
In exchange for your use of their images they are requiring you to give them credit for having created it in the first place. A simple “Image by ___” and a link to that source is all that’s required under the attribution license.
Finding What You Need
Now that you know where to find some great images, let’s go through how to search them quickly.
Since attribution is the most flexible license be sure to go to http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0 which will land you on a page like this.
As a test, in the search box enter cars and you will get a host of automobiles. Now go back and enter red cars to get you closer to what you are actually looking for.
Clicking on the “recent” link above the thumbnails will show you all of the more recently added images. I like to use these because they’ve not been on the site as long as others, meaning there is less chance of a wide distribution.
Note that the results are still in the attribution category, so just find the image you want and follow the rules of usage. Once the image is located, click it to place it in a lightbox then select “View all sizes”. This will show you all of the available sizes for your selction.
So have at it, visit Flickr Creative Commons and find yourself some wonderful images to use in your blog or other publications. Be sure to observe the license conditions and give credit to the author for their great work.
Keep Blogging!
Top Image By: fdecomite
9 Responses to Where and How to Find Great Images on Flickr
Leave a Reply
" @sbc111 That's quite a thrill ride. Great that you have that skill. " — JimiJones
I love images. It’s not easy to find one, sometimes it’ll take hours to find the right piece so most of the time I gave up and create it my own. That’s the time I wish I could go out and capture more snapshots.
Even so, thanks for reminding me that Flickr can be a good source in case I need it. Just need to have better luck though.
@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
I’m an image junkie as well.
Creating my own is a lot of fun, but like you say, eats away time. I absolutely love those frozen moments in time. Should have been a photographer full time.
I like using photos, but sometimes it can be a pain. I have been using one site mostly, but you did a good job explaining how I can use Flickr. I don’t use Flickr too much because I have a hard time trying to find something. I’ll be revisiting them. Thanks!
P.S. Off topic. How do you like Disqus commenting system? I’ve been thinking about revisiting it, but I’m afraid it will cause some issues.
Take care,
Evelyn
Hi Evelyn.
Happy to know you’ll be taking another look at Flickr, I think you’ll find it helpful.
Regarding Disqus, I like the system quite a bit but must identify one shortfall and one recent issue. There is no Comment Luv integration, something I had hoped would have arrived by now.
The other issue is a slight delay in the number of comments displayed, a very recent development. As an example, when there are two comments and a third is added, the number displayed has not changed instantly. It always corrects itself after a short time, but this has been a mystery as to why this occurs in the first place. Perhaps the next plugin update (which occurs frequently) will correct this. I know of one other person experiencing the same thing, as they asked me about it.
The big plus is the fact that you don’t have to complete your info on every site that uses Disqus, the system recognizes you and you simply enter your comment.
Hope this helps.
It’s good to see you.
Thanks! I’m going to experiment with it and see it for a little bit.
Take care!
Finding right images for posts is really hard work Jimi and on top of it the licence issues should be respected. I was using corbisimage and thank you very much for adding more resources.
Yes, finding some images that are free to use can be quite challenging. The photo houses like Dreamstime and iStock will cost you a small fortune if you had to rely only on them.
Always observing the usage rights of any image is a good practice that will keep folks out of trouble.
Great Jimi,
I will check it out, definitely, so far i use my own images, can be pain sometimes, needs a while to create, plus when people steal it, make me grrrrrr.
Thanks for the nice share!
Hi Mrs_Moody!
Using your own images can be quite a challenge over the long haul. It’s nice to have some alternative resources. Regarding the images scraped and stolen by others, watermarking them with your site name is on alternative.
Some of the images that I create myself are allowed to go up without watermarks and such, just to see if they appear elsewhere. In some cases I don’t mind, although it is still not proper to just help yourself.
Here some additional info on Flickr images at one of my other blogs: http://bit.ly/buIPMi
Thanks for visiting!